bis-club.ru is the website of the Nizhny Novgorod fitness club "BIS," which opened in the early 2000s. The Wayback Machine's first snapshot of the home page was taken on September 24, 2002[1], and the page footer carried the line "© 2002 Fitness Club BIS"[2]. The site was listed in the Nizhny Novgorod directory nn.ru as "the website of the prestigious fitness club 'BIS'," with prices, a schedule, instructors, and a location. In the mid-2010s the domain name passed to a different owner — the Moscow-based "Best In Show Club"[3] — and the last Wayback Machine snapshot of bis-club.ru is dated March 24, 2018[4].
The club and its website
The home page, in the snapshot from February 15, 2003, was framed as a welcoming address to the visitor: the club called itself new and "prestigious," promised "an atmosphere of pleasure, fun, and health," and asked visitors to find "a couple of hours a week" for classes[2]. The same page argued against what it called three myths: that a great sports club can only be located downtown, that a good club is very expensive, and that it's too hot to exercise in summer[2].
Links on the home page led to sections on: membership prices, discounts and bonuses; class schedule; "Our Team"; class descriptions and categories; a list of health restrictions for aerobics classes; and special offers[2]. The only contact information on the surviving part of the page is an email address, info@bis-club.ru; there is no phone number in the text of the snapshot[2].
The content of the workouts and the gym's equipment can be judged from the page's service list of keywords. It lists aerobics, step, fitball, Latin, hip-hop, jazz, street, jungle, dumbbells, weights, ball, as well as mirrors, air conditioning, shower, ventilation hood, programs, classes, instructors, nutrition, diet, convention, and the Reebok brand[2]. The same list contains the word "Kuznechikha" — a Nizhny Novgorod place name and the only geographic reference in the site's surviving text; together with the argument that a good club need not be located downtown, it outlines "BIS"'s position on the city map[2].
A place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet
The site entered our census from the nn.ru directory's listings; its directory entry described the resource as a club page with prices, a schedule, instructors, news, special offers, and a location. bis-club.ru has no measured position in the Counter.nn.ru ranking, and among the sites voted for at the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day in 2004 it does not appear — zero votes[5]. In other words, the club's website was not a notable participant in the Nizhny Novgorod Internet: it was an ordinary calling card of a local establishment, of which the directory held hundreds. The sampling method by which such sites were selected for description is set out in the article Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating.
Someone else's site at the old address
The snapshot from September 22, 2017 shows an entirely different project at bis-club.ru — "Best In Show Club," which presented itself as a professional dog-handling hall in Moscow's northeastern administrative district, at 14 Ostashkovskaya Street, with the phone numbers +7 (977) 702-53-74 and +7 (916) 032-36-68; the email address remained the same, info@bis-club.ru[3]. The menu consisted of the sections "Home," "About the club," "Services," "Seminars," "Our specialists," "Gallery," "Price list," and "Contacts"; the news items featured handling courses with Anastasia Khachaturyan and Arina Krasnolobova (June 2, 2017) and a program called "UGS — Managed Urban Dog" (June 28, 2017)[3]. Halls of 80 and 40 square meters were available for rent; the page listed mirrored walls, non-slip flooring, treadmills for dogs, a paw-washing station, daily quartz-lamp disinfection, Wi-Fi, and video streaming of classes into the lounge[3].
The only thing the two sites have in common is the domain name and the email address; the archived snapshots show no continuity between the Nizhny Novgorod fitness club and the Moscow dog club, and the census entry notes explicitly that the domain appears to have passed to different owners. Exactly when "BIS"'s site closed cannot be established from the surviving snapshots.
How it closed
The Wayback Machine's last snapshot of the home page was taken on March 24, 2018 — showing the same Moscow dog-handling hall, only with a 2018 copyright notice[4]. In total, the Wayback Machine index lists 19 captures of the bis-club.ru home page. A check made while preparing this census entry found no domain at all: bis-club.ru no longer responds.
Sources
- web.archive.org — First snapshot of the home page, 2002 (archive)
- web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
- web.archive.org — Home page, 2017 (archive)
- web.archive.org — Home page, 2018 (archive)
- web.archive.org — Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet voting results, 2004 (archive)